Art brings healing feeling to patients

TOWN OF WALLKILL — A few weeks ago, a tree sprouted in the new Orange Regional Medical Center's pediatric playroom.

Alyssa Sunkin

TOWN OF WALLKILL — A few weeks ago, a tree sprouted in the new Orange Regional Medical Center's pediatric playroom.

Its walnut trunk grooved, branches grasping at vibrant green leaves reaching out to the ceiling. An iguana climbs the tree's body while a ladybug nestles on a leaf.

No, it's not a real tree. It's hand-carved ceramic tile made by Middletown artist Natalie Surving of Surving Studios. But it offers patients a window to nature and the outside world.

Children playing there could close their eyes, run their hands along the textured tiles, and be anywhere they want to be.

"Our goal in this playroom was to try to bring the outside in, to make it enjoyable as well as healing," said Sarah Thompson, art curator for Orange Regional. "Here they can play, have fun, and get lost in their own little world built from their imagination."

Tucked away in the budget for the new Orange Regional, which opened Aug. 5, was $500,000 that officials spent on art in various mediums. Pieces of fine art were created by both locally and internationally known artists.

Thompson spent the past two and a half years searching for pieces to soften the feel of the hospital, as well as tie in recognizable images, such as landscapes of the region, that patients and visitors can relate to and which put them more at ease.

She has not only traveled to find artists who would fit the needs of the hospital, but artists have also contacted her.

She has also received donations from local families, including the Schwartzman family of Warwick, who donated a whimsical painting by Canadian painter Marcel Cote to the hospital's pediatric wing.

Local artists including Surving, Joy Gilinsky Monte of New Windsor, Dr. Barry Pariser of Newburgh, Linda Richichi of Newburgh, James Douglas of Montgomery, Janet Howard-Fata of Warwick and Lara Brietman of Warwick are featured at the hospital.

Thompson plans to continue and grow the hospital's art program. She is working with the Wallkill River School and the Orange County Arts Council to host bimonthly art shows in the public corridor near the hospital's new cafeteria to showcase works by local artists.

"The power of art has always been the ability to transport a person from their immediate circumstances to a state of mind they can remember — or look at a piece and have that be a world they dream of, or a goal they can imagine," Thompson said.

"Art can encourage the ill as well as inspire the ones who support them."